Federal Sequestration

The deadline passed last Friday when mandated cuts to the federal programs started to take place. While many entitlements that are the budget busters were spared, the across the board budget cuts hit programs in public schools, transportation, the military and Head Start. Mayor Thomas M. Menino is assessing the impact of the cuts to the City of Boston budget.

The exact fallout from this impasse between Republicans and Democrats cannot be assessed at this time. Economists agree that the fallout from the $85 billion cut in the federal programs and the longer this issue stays unresolved the more disastrous it will be not only for the economy but also for our fellow citizens who depend on many of these programs .

We agree that the federal deficit and the way programs are administered and funded need to be changed.

We agree that our country seems to be losing its way in addressing how to deal with these issues.

However, the present impasse is not the way to deal with running this country. Nobody in this debate is totally right or totally wrong in his or her viewpoint.

President Abraham Lincoln’s greatest attribute was that he was able to see an argument from both sides and strike a compromise.

Today nobody in Washington seems to have that ability.

We find that if one makes a problem complicated, then solutions are that much more difficult to find. We also find that several small steps in a solution are better than one large step.

We hope that our elected leaders will not let this impasse linger until September as has been rumored by political pundits.

We agree with Mayor Menino when he said, “The people in Washington just need to be sensible.” Perhaps this is the starting point to end the impasse.